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Wednesday’s ad is for Rainier Beer, made by the Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. The ad is from around 1900, and features a lovely woman holding up a glass of beer to the sky. I particularly love that tagline at the bottom: “There’s New Vigor and Strength in Every Drop.”

Wednesday’s ad is Rainier Beer, from the Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. Like the other Rainier ad I’ve featured, For Pure Drink, it’s from the early years of the 20th century, probably in the first decade. It’s a simple ad showing a beautiful woman holding up a dainty glass of beer while leaning on a giant bottle of Rainier. And I love the message, which would be illegal in a beer ad today; “There’s New Vigor and Strength in Every Drop.”

Thursday’s ad is another ad for healthy beer, somewhat similar to yesterday’s Budweiser ad. This one is just a few years later, from 1907, and was sent to me by fellow blogger Lisa Grimm from WeirdBeerGirl (thanks Lisa). The ad is for Rainier Pale Beer, from Seattle Brewing & Malting Co., and shows a group of children using a giant beer bottle as a Maypole. Mother can be seen in the background, arriving on the scene with a tray full of beer bottles and glasses. Again, can you just imagine that ad today? The copy is equally interesting.

6 a.m.–2 a.m. A local government subdivision may fix later opening hours or earlier closing hours than those here specified

Grocery Store Sales: Yes

Notes: Beer and wine available in grocery stores and convenience stores every day (including federal holidays) from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. Spirits for off-premise consumption are sold only in state-run or state-contracted liquor stores. All state-owned stores are open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mon-Thurs and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Fri-Sat. Contract stores may still set their own hours, but liquor sales may not be rung up before 8 a.m. and may not be rung up after 11 p.m. A handful of state and contract stores are open Sundays from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. State stores are open on most federal holidays, excluding New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Contract stores have the option to remain open on any holiday at the discretion of the store manager.
Currently set to transition to a non-control state by June 2012.

Here’s some surprising news. Jennifer Talley, the award-winning brewer from Squatter’s Pub Brewery in Salt Lake City, Utah, is moving to Washington to take over brewing for RedHook at their Woodinville brewery. Specifically, her title will be “brewing operations manager.” Talley had been with Squatters for at least 20 years. According to Pro Brewer, who broke the news yesterday, “Squatter’s produces about 1,250 barrels of beer a year. Redhook? About 170,000 barrels of beer annually.”

When Squatters opened a microbrewery in 1994, Talley became head brewer when the previous head brewer moved over to Salt Lake Brewing’s sister company, Utah Brewers Cooperative, which makes Wasatch Beers.

Talley got her first award — a gold medal at Denver’s Great American Beer Festival for a Vienna lager — in 1997. She proceeded to name her daughter Vienna when she was born two years ago. Since then, she has won numerous awards at the GABF, including another gold last weekend for Squatters’ Fifth Element ale. Squatters will search nationally and locally for a new head brewer.

Here’s an odd new innovation (sent in by my friend Mike C.) from GrinOn Industries of Montesano, Washington. They’ve created the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System. As they claim, “GrinOn’s proprietary Bottoms Up Dispensing System is the fastest dispensing system in the world and fills at a rate of up to nine times that of traditional beer taps.” Take a look at in action below.

GrinOn lists a litany of benefits to their system, though the most obvious is that it “improves speed-of-service increases customer satisfaction and sales.” I don’t know about the “customer satisfaction” but an increase in sales makes sense in the right setting, such as an environment where long lines make speed a real issue, and one where plastics cups are the only option. It seems ideal for a sports stadium or a fair. The homepage features a video showing two people filling 44 cups of beer in one minute, without even breaking a sweat. There are also a number of additional videos on a separate page.

Below is what the dispenser base looks like.

They also claim that their system “reduces the stress and cost of ‘foamy beer problems.'” Filling the beer from the bottom does seem like it would produce head in a very different way, though in the video it certainly seems adequate for the type of beer being poured. It also must use a proprietary cup, though the website talks about there being a FDA approved MAG™ — a round magnet — at the bottom of the cup which seals the cup. It apparently can also be used after you drink the beer as a refrigerator magnet, and they even can sell you a customized magnet that can be a souvenir after the fact or otherwise used promotionally.

I can’t see it being used by small breweries or brewpubs, or even most beer bars, but where volume of just a couple of different beers — the big macros and high volume micros seem likeliest — is the key to the business, then it seems like it could be viable. What do you think?

An alert reader just forwarded me this (thanks Shaun). Today, a Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, Washington, is test-marketing a new menu item: beer. According to an AP story the Starbucks on East Olive Way “reopened Monday [and] is the first under the Starbucks brand to offer alcohol.” The AP story continues with the following. “Craft beer and local wines go on sale after 4 p.m. The idea is to offer drinks and a wider variety of savory food that will attract customers after the morning espresso rush.”

USA Today has a fuller story about how and why the chain is testing beer, wine, cheese and other foods. Their pronouncement is that the “Starbucks of the future arrived today.” They speculate that if successful, this new model could become “the prototype for the next generation of stores for one of the world’s most influential brands.” Here’s how they describe the new look of the renovated Starbucks.

A very different kind of Starbucks is on tap. It will serve regional wine and beer. It offers an expansive plate of locally made cheeses — served on china. The barista bar is rebuilt to seat customers up close to the coffee.

Most conspicuously, the place looks less like a Starbucks and more like a cafe that’s been part of the neighborhood for years — yet that’s “green” in design and decor. This is the calling card of independent java joints that have been eating and sipping away at Starbucks’ evening business for decades. U.S. Starbucks stores get 70% of business before 2 p.m.

The corporate eyes of Starbucks — and the nation’s ultracompetitive, $15 billion chain coffee business — are laser-focused on this Starbucks store on Olive Way in Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill area. The 10-year-old location was closed for three months to be revamped into a Starbucks that may not look or sound like any Starbucks you know. But if this location is a hit, some version of it may eventually come to a Starbucks near you.

….

Inside, the floor is stripped to highly polished concrete. Some of the chairs were salvaged from the University of Washington campus. Empty burlap sacks — once used to transport Starbucks coffee beans — hang from the walls. And an oversized table — designed for customers to share — is made from flooring salvaged from a local high school.

There’s also a video of the new Starbucks’ project to sell both beer and wine.